Constant repeated MLS protocol messages

[alpakkas]

This message continues to appear randomly and sometimes up to tens of times in Wire Chats:

"This conversation now uses the new Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol. To communicate seamlessly, always use the latest version of Wire on your devices. Learn more about MLS"

I cannot find any way to suppress the messages and there is no "Got it!" button to stop the messages re-appearing.

I use Linux (LinuxMint, Ubuntu, mobian) and Android and chat with iOS, Linux and Windows users. The messages appear in chats without any obvious pattern. I use both the Linux app and Chromium based web browsers (Chromium and Vivaldi) and have had the messages appear when using the app and web browsers under Linux. As far as I am aware all browsers and apps are updated.

I am unable to determine if it is the Linux app, the web browsers or something else that is causing these messages to appear as there is no pattern to their arrival.

My internet connection for all of my devices is a 4G connection with a Pi-hole acting as the DNS server on my home network (if this is of importance).

[ostberget]

I'm experiencing the same issue with some of my conversations.

I'm also noticing when checking the list of devices of the recipient there is a bunch of (probably old) devices that does not have the "MLS THUMBPRINT: XX XX XX .. ..". Then when I checked the list of my own devices I saw the same pattern.

The conversations where I do not get this "spam" is where the recipient have no devices with the MLS THUMBPRINT listed. Probably because they are slow updating their client software.

I now removed the old unused devices in my own list and asked a friend to do the same. Hopefully this resolves the issue and hopefully this can be useful to fixing the bug.

I'll come back with results!

EDIT: After some testing with my friend I did not notice any difference, the "spam" kept coming.

[alpakkas]

Here are the instructions I got from Wire support to try to fix this problem. I have not found the time to do this as yet. I have asked contacts that use the apps (iOS/Linux/Windows) to check that their apps are up to date. This will take a week to achieve.

"Thank you for your follow-up and for clarifying your setup.

To address the issue with repeated MLS protocol messages, please follow these steps:

1. Create a backup of your conversation history. You can find instructions here: https://support.wire.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000824805-Back-up-your-conversation-history
2. Remove any old devices linked to your Wire account that may be running outdated versions. Guidance is available here: https://support.wire.com/hc/en-us/articles/207859855-Manage-your-devices
3. Once your backup is secure, restore your chat history following the steps in this article: https://support.wire.com/hc/en-us/articles/18666343787293-Migration-from-Proteus-to-MLS-protocol
4. If the issue continues, please ensure your backup is saved and perform a fresh installation of the app.

Let us know if you have any questions or encounter any issues during these steps."

[alpakkas]

OK I have discovered that when using the vivaldi-snapshot browser (Chromium based) on Ubuntu 22.04 the MLS messages keep appearing.

Chromium on mobian (debian for PinePhones) and Chromium on LinuxMInt 21.1 do not display the MLS messages.

All three browsers show "Wire for web version 2025.05.20.10.52.21 AVS version 10.0.43".

[alpakkas]

In the meantime I set up an account in vivaldi-stable and MLS messages started appearing. So it seems that here the issue is related to the vivaldi browser.

Does the issue exist under Vivaldi on Windows/MacOSX?

[alpakkas]

I have now had a single MLS message in a chat with a contact while using Firefox under LinuxMint. Just that contact and no others so far.

[alpakkas]

Scratch that, it is not just Vivaldi that is causing the issue.

I have reports of family members one using Windows and the other Linux (Firefox)
getting lots of MLS messages from another family member who is using exclusively the Linux version of the desktop app.

Is there any way to just turn off the automatic MLS messages completely.

Once one has been sent it should not need to be sent again.

[reasonset]

I'm experiencing the same issue.

There was a suggestion that the problem might be caused by devices without MLS Thumbprints being registered. In my case, all devices—including Linux Desktop (AppImage) and Android (Play Store)—have an MLS Thumbprint shown. Also, there was a report that this issue may occur when using a web browser, but we aren't using that.

The issue itself only appears on the Linux Desktop app. It doesn’t show up on the mobile version. From what I can tell, a new message seems to be added each time the app is launched.

[alpakkas]

So far mitigation strategies that I have used with my contacts that seem to have helped are:

1. Moving a LinuxMint user over to using app.wire.com in Chromium from the Linux app.
2. Another contact moving to using app.wire.com in Firefox under Gentoo
3. Avoiding using Vivaldi where possible

I still get occasional MLS messages from a contact using Wire under Android. I do not seem to have MLS messages from the same contact when they are using app.wire.com in a browser under MacOSX.

There really does not seem to be a clear pattern to this problem.